Unveiled - Google's New Mobile Ad Tool

As the world of mobile continues to swamp the performance marketing industry, US internet giant Google has unveiled a useful tool to help businesses measure their return on investment (ROI) for mobile ad spending.

The global multinational corporation has unveiled the new ‘Full Value of Mobile’ calculator, and resources, to help users estimate the mobile’s value for their business - in this ever-growing newfangled multi-screen world.

The calculator provides simple equations and benchmarks to help users estimate the value that mobile drives for their business through calls, apps, in-store, mobile site and cross-device.

Key Assumptions

In about 30 minutes, the user can follow the step-by-step wizard to upload data from AdWords and their mobile website, and make key assumptions to create a ‘Full Value of Mobile’ estimate. Through the exercise, they will see the total value, value per click, and ROI that mobile is driving for their business across all mobile customer paths.

Google hopes the Full Value of Mobile calculator will help marketers begin to investigate mobile’s impact online and offline, whether they use it as a directional estimate of mobile’s value or to spark ideas on how to build deeper and more customised models.

Google’s head of mobile ads marketing, Johanna Werther, said rethinking conversion paths is not only key to unlocking the full value of mobile, but is also key to unlocking the full value of digital.

“Mobility has forever changed the way consumers live and shop, giving rise to these new customer paths as the lines between digital and physical experiences blur,” Werther said.

“Understanding what each of these mobile pathways means for your business is a critical piece of the larger attribution challenge that every marketer needs to meet head-on. This requires thinking about the full customer journey and acknowledging the interplay between various devices, channels and media influences along the way.”

Most Marketers Have ‘Struggled’

Werther said there is still more work to be done to improve measurement tools, but stressed that today’s announcement will help marketers better understand mobile’s impact online and offline.

“This new consumer behaviour is now the norm, with a recent study showing that nearly three of 10 mobile searches result in visiting a store, calling a business, or making a purchase online,” she added.

Werther said that adidas, in partnership with its agency iProspect, felt that mobile was converting in ways beyond its mobile website, so created a ‘simple yet powerful attribution model’ to understand how mobile is driving customers into stores.

From this adidas found that each click on their store locator button was worth $3.20, which has now changed the way they view their digital investment.

“While savvy marketers like adidas are already defining the full value of mobile, most marketers have struggled to get started,” Werther said.